Note: GJEP Co-director Orin Langelle is finishing his Blue Mountain Center Artist in Residency at the end of this week and forwarded this post. All of the photographs in the article are from Langelle. Stay tuned as sometime next week as he will tell what it was like for him to relive four decades of his photography.–The GJEP Team
Cross-Posted on July 12, 2011 from Blue Mountain Center
Residents Andrew Boyd and David Lloyd talking to Director Stephan Svoboda
Last June, Stephan Svoboda, Executive Artistic Director of the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts, directed a site-specific rendition of Mary Zimmerman’s play Metamorphoses (an adaptation of the classic Ovid poem) in BMC’s boathouse. The actors splashed around in the water and bravely swam under the dock slips, creatively using the found space of the lake to tailor their production specifically to an Adirondack setting. Svoboda’s production of Metamorphoses was a huge success.
St. Williams Church at Long Point
This Saturday, Svoboda and his lively troop of professional actors put on this year’s site-specific play in the found space of St. William’s Church at Long Point–a historic church turned non-for-profit, non-denominational, boat access only retreat and cultural center.
This year The Adirondack Lakes Summer Theater Festival presented an adaptation of The Conference of the Birds, originally written and produced by legendary stage director Peter Brook.
The play, which depicts a conference of birds searching for philosophical answers and a spiritual relationship with “God,” explores various dramatic and storytelling styles from around the world.
Stephan Svoboda's "The Conference of the Birds"
BMC residents not only had the opportunity to attend and enjoy the production, but also to ride the historic WW Durant as the sun set over Raquette Lake for a celebratory champagne cruise following the play. Blue Mountain Center staff are excited to bring the Second Session of residents to The Art Center’s next production, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, which will be at Long Lake Town Hall on July 14th, at 8pm.
Sunset View from the WW Durant
Resident Orin Langelle took these photographs. Langelle is working on four decades of his concerned photography here at Blue Mountain Center. To sample his latest photographic essay, please go to Chiapas, Mexico: From Living in the jungle to ‘existing’ in “little houses made of ticky-tacky…” More of his work work can be found at Climate Connections.
-SMK
About Blue Mountain Center
The Center is a turn-of-the century Adirondack lodge in a pristine and peaceful setting of woods, lakes and mountains. Life at Blue Mountain Center is organized to maintain privacy and quiet. The atmosphere is informal and cooperative. Writers are lodged in individual bedroom/studies in the Main House or the Grey Cottage; visual artists and composers have separate studios. Breakfast and dinner are served in the dining room. Linens and laundry facilities are provided. The amenities of the Center, including a tennis court, lakes, boats and hiking trails, promise even the most diligent worker diversion and relaxation. The telephone is considered something of an outsider at the Center. There is a phone for guests’ use, as well as a computer with email access and a laptop connection. To foster serenity, TV and cellular phones are not welcome.
